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Pac-12 adds Carter Westfall as new Vice President of International

SAN FRANCISCO – As the Pac-12 Globalization Initiative continues to grow, the Conference announced today that it has hired Carter Westfall as the Pac-12’s Vice President of International. In this role, Westfall will provide leadership and drive brand strategy and operations for the Pac-12’s global initiatives, with a main emphasis on China.

Westfall most recently worked for the Sacramento Kings as Vice President of Business Development where he played a lead role in sourcing partnerships for the new downtown Golden 1 Center. While in Sacramento, Westfall also managed the international business development for the team's NBA Global Games in China and Mexico.

Prior to joining the Kings, Westfall worked in the NBA league office as the Associate Vice President of Global Market-ing Partnerships. In this role, he oversaw the NBA’s international business development efforts and worked with the NBA’s 13 regional offices to create new marketing partnerships in places like China, Africa, and Brazil. Westfall has also spent time at Helios Partners, an Olympics-focused marketing agency, where he founded the company’s London office.

“We have built a great foundation for the Pac-12 Globalization Initiative and welcome Carter as we explore more opportunities for our universities and student-athletes,” said Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott. “Carter’s expertise will allow us to increase our international events and partnerships, and most importantly, provide our student-athletes with even more opportunities to learn about and contribute to communities around the world.”

The creation of the new Vice President of International position comes as part of the expanding Pac-12 Globalization Initiative. The initiative, founded in 2011, is an unprecedented effort to proactively promote the Conference and its member institutions globally through student-athlete exchanges and sport.

This November, the Pac-12 will host the first-ever regular season U.S. basketball game – collegiate or professional – in China as Washington takes on Texas in Shanghai. The initiative has also sent two men’s basketball teams, one women’s basketball team, two all-star women’s volleyball teams, and one all-star men’s basketball team to compete in China. In the U.S., the Pac-12 has hosted three U.S.-China Symposiums on Collegiate Sports Development.

This past season, the Pac-12 became the first Conference to stream men’s basketball games in China through a partnership with Chinese interactive video platform LeTV. Twenty-seven Pac-12 games were streamed on PCs, tablets, mobile devices, and OTT devices.

Westfall has ties to the Pac-12 Conference as a graduate of the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He will report to Jamie Zaninovich, Deputy Commissioner and COO of the Pac-12, and work closely with Carrie Xu, Senior Manager of International. A Shanghai native, Xu joined the Pac-12 in 2011 and has spearheaded all aspects of the Pac-12 Globalization Initiative.

“I am thrilled to join the Pac-12 and contribute to a team on the forefront of globalization,” said Westfall. “We have a great opportunity to build on the momentum created by key partners and marquee events to find opportunities to enrich the lives of our student-athletes and build awareness for our universities.”

About the Pac-12 Conference
The Conference has a tradition as the “Conference of Champions,” leading the nation in NCAA Championships in 50 of the last 55 years, with 478 NCAA team titles overall. The Conference comprises 12 leading U.S. universities: The University of Arizona, Arizona State University, the University of California-Berkeley, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Colorado, the University of Oregon, Oregon State University, Stanford University, the University of Southern California, the University of Utah, the University of Washington and Washington State University. For more information on the Conference’s programs, member institutions, and Commissioner Larry Scott, go to www.pac-12.com/conference.

About the Pac-12 Globalization Initiative
Founded in 2011, the Pac-12 Globalization Initiative is an unprecedented effort to proactively promote the Conference and its member institutions globally through student-athlete exchanges and sport. The Initiative uses the shared passion of athletics to support the ambitious international strategies that many of our universities have em-barked on to extend their reach into China. For more information on the initiative and its history, go to www.pac-12.com/pac-12-globalization-initiative.